Chapter XVII: Breeder of Short Horn Cattle

My half-brother, Charles R., continued on the farm in my employment and in the care of my short-horn cattle business until the year 1889, when I sold out my entire herd. During the ten years I was in the business I enjoyed the recreation and attention to my stock, finding it a great relief from my nervous tension and anxiety incident to an extensive practice of the law. Soon after I commenced the business I attended a meeting of the short-horn breeders of the state at West Liberty, Iowa, at which time there was organized a Short-Horn Breeders' Association of the state of Iowa, and I was elected president of the association and continued in that office for seven years and until I retired from the business. In the meantime we had also organized a national association at Chicago for the purpose of purchasing the short-horn herd books published in New York, Ohio, and Kentucky, and establishing the _American Short-Horn Herd Book_, which became the only authentic publication of pedigrees of short-horn cattle in the United States. I was made a member of this board of control and continued in that relation for a number of years, until I declined a further election because of my retirement from the business. Our board of directors represented some eleven different states of the Union with one director from Canada. Our annual meetings were held at the time of the annual Fat Stock Show in Chicago, and the gentlemen with whom I was associated in that capacity were among the most pleasant acquaintances I ever made during my lifetime. I found them intelligent, broad-minded men, entirely unselfish and devoted to the interests of the Association. During my connection with the board we paid off the entire indebtedness incurred in the purchase of the _Short-Horn Herd Book_ as theretofore published by Mr. Allen of New York, and also the indebtedness incurred in the purchase of the _Kentucky Herd Book_ and the _Ohio Herd Book_. Our state association also met once a year in connection with the Improved Stock Breeders' Association of the state. We generally wound up these sessions of our meetings with a banquet given us by the citizens of the place where we held our meetings. At these banquets we had a number of toasts and speeches, rather of the humorous than of the instructive kind. I give herewith a specimen that I find printed with the proceedings of the association held at Ottumwa on the 4th day of December, 1885.

The Short-horn and Improved Stock Breeders' associations of Iowa
were intended in a great measure by their founders as missionary
societies. It was contemplated that they would hold their
conventions in the smaller towns and more sparsely settled portions
of the state, where their discussions upon breeds and breeding
would educate the farmers around in these great and important
industries.

A feast like this in one of the thriving and finest cities of the
state is hardly consistent with this benevolent and
self-sacrificing purpose, and I have reason to fear for the
consequences; we may fall from grace. At a recent session of the
New York Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, it is
said that the bishop had great difficulty in satisfying the
preachers about their appointments. One of the elders gravely
informed the bishop, that the preachers in his district had two
ambitions; one was to get to heaven, and the other was to be
stationed in the city of New York, and if they were to miss either,
he thought they would prefer to go to New York!

Now I know many of these self-sacrificing gentlemen I see around me
have in the past of their lives been trying to do good, looking for
their reward largely in the next world; but I fear in the future,
when we come to fix the place of our next annual meeting, they will
forget the spirit of self-sacrifice and the world to come, and say,
"Let us go to Ottumwa!" [Great laughter.]

I wish I could express to the citizens of Ottumwa the genuine
appreciation that I know these my brethren feel for them. It could
not be otherwise than that they should love you. You have
appreciated us and we must ever appreciate you. Your example also
may be valuable to us; others may hear of your good works and may
be thereby moved to be equally mindful of our necessities.
[Applause.]

My first knowledge of Ottumwa was in the year 1851. It was then a
straggling village of one street lined on either side with wooden
shanties. It would have been impossible for me to have imagined
then that in a few short years, whilst I am yet a young man
[laughter], there should be built here a substantial city of
fifteen thousand inhabitants. This goodly town is indeed a proud
monument to the thrift, enterprise, intelligence, and taste of its
inhabitants. Its commercial and manufacturing interests, and its
tasteful architecture you may justly be proud of.

Iowa is indeed a remarkable state and her people a peculiar people.
We have but few drones in the hive. Our population is made up of
simply the young and the strong and the enterprising of the other
states that have come hither to build up their personal fortunes,
and who have at the same time laid well and strong the foundations
of a great state. There is scarcely a college or university of any
of the older states that is not well represented in our men and
women. We have come together here and what one did not know he has
learned from his next door neighbor. All have contributed something
to the common fund of knowledge and enterprise. We have now built
our own schoolhouses and colleges, and today we have a less per
cent of illiteracy than any other state in the Union. But there is
one burden on my heart and one thought I desire to express: What is
the future to be? Are we giving to the state the children that may
worthily fill our places and take up and carry forward the work
that we have begun? The highest duty that we owe to the state is to
furnish to it in our children that perfect type of manhood that
will constitute its true glory. What signifies this accumulation of
wealth, these fine buildings, this beautiful architecture, if our
sons are to be profligates and the accursed saloon is to destroy
all the fruit of our toil. The time has come when as citizens and
as fathers we must seriously address ourselves to this problem of
our civilization.

I came to Iowa more than thirty years ago. I formed many warm
attachments among the young men, then just beginning life. I
remember the pride and hope that these young men and their then
young wives had in their children. As I visit the older towns where
these men have lived and won honorable distinction I have inquired
for their children. Alas! Too often it is a sad story and a painful
remembrance, and I have asked myself the question, is this always
to be so? And is there no help?

But enough of this; I forget I was not appointed to preach a
sermon, but to respond to a toast, and to express the appreciation
of these stockbreeders for your kindness. You have done well. The
scriptures exhort "that we should not be forgetful to entertain
strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Now I
am willing to admit that it would be a violent imagination that
would mistake one of these lusty stockbreeders for an angel. It
will probably be some time before even the pin-feathers will sprout
from their shoulder blades. But they are susceptible and under
proper influences and conditions I don't know what may happen. I
remember in the early days of Des Moines, when we were dependent
upon ourselves entirely for amusements, the ladies got up a public
entertainment consisting chiefly of tableaux. I had the honor of
officiating as stage manager. One representation was of a good and
an evil spirit, representing an angel and a devil. The ladies were
quite tardy in getting ready. I went into the green room to hurry
matters and found the ladies dressing [great applause and continued
interruption]. Do not interrupt in the middle of a sentence. I was
saying I found the ladies dressing the angel--a young lady to whom
they were attaching a pair of wings. I chided their delay and
unfortunately remarked, "that it took a long time to make an angel
out of a woman." The man who was to represent the evil spirit was
sitting by, all ready, with blackened face and horns, and one of
the ladies, pointing to him instantly remarked, "that it took but
little time to make a devil out of a man." Of course it is only a
question of time with all of this crowd. We all expect to be angels
but it will take time and good feeding.

I believe I have fully exhausted the subject assigned to me, to say
nothing of the audience. It is sad to have to make a speech when
you don't know beforehand what you are going to say and nobody
knows after you are done what you have said. Brethren we have cast
our bread upon the waters--and it has returned to us after many
days, literally and substantially.

I cannot conclude without thanking you for your quiet and
uninterrupted attention.

During my visit to Emporia, Kansas, with my niece, Rose Vimont, I found a volume written by Alexander H. Stephens, evidently for the purpose of justifying the attempt that had been made to destroy the government of the United States by the disintegration of the government and the establishment of the doctrine of the right of secession. That fall I was invited by the president of the faculty of Simpson Centenary College at Indianola, Iowa, to deliver an address at the college commencement. I accordingly prepared with considerable care a lecture upon the constitutional relations of the national and state governments, in which I endeavored to combat the heresies contained in Stephens's book, and the great truth that the national government was not a compact between sovereign states, but was what it purported to be--a government emanating from the source of all power: to-wit, the people. The trustees and faculty of the college, after this lecture, honored me by conferring upon me the degree of Doctor of Laws. This lecture I afterwards delivered, upon the invitation of the president and faculty of Drake University, before the students of that institution, and also before the law class of the State University at Iowa City.

About this time I also prepared and delivered on several occasions a lecture upon the legal rights of married women, containing some sarcasm and criticism upon the advanced legislation by which under our laws a wife could bring suit in the courts and obtain judgment upon a promissory note executed by her husband and payable to herself, citing an instance in which this doctrine had actually been put in practice, and remarking upon the right of the wife to issue execution against her husband and cause a levy to be made upon his personal property for the payment of the judgment, stating, however, that the law in its humanity and pity for the husband had fortunately exempted the husband's wearing apparel, including his pantaloons, from execution. This lecture I also delivered, at the request of several local institutions in several parts of the state.